My trip over to NYC was exhausting; I finished my X800 XL review at around 2AM yesterday, went to sleep for 4 hours and then hit the road by around 6:30. Despite it only being about 75 miles away, I didn't get to my meeting in the city until 10AM. The last 15 miles were the worst, they took about an hour alone. The meeting went well, although it's nothing I can talk about until sometime in Q1 next year.
I did a decent amount of gift shopping for Vinney in and around the city. The problem with living in Branford is that if you want anything other than what you can get at "the Walmart" you're pretty much out of luck, so taking advantage of trips out to more consumer-friendly areas is always on the to-do list.
I've been missing a good burger for quite some time now. The one thing we had plenty of in Raleigh were good burger joints (Cookout, Chargrill, Circus, etc...) and although none of them come close to the unhealthy goodness that is In-and-Out, they are better than nothing. There doesn't seem to be any good equivalents up here, although yesterday I found out that there are a plethora of Checkers in NY that I may be tempted to visit. We had Checkers back in Raleigh for a while, but there was some hepatitis B scare which I believe forced them to close down. They came back for a little bit but then went away again for similar reasons I believe. Checkers was a high school favorite of mine just for the fries, so I may have to find some excuse to make the always tiresome journey out to NY to sample them once more.
We'll be driving down to NC for the holidays, Vinney finishes up classes on the 21st so we'll be leaving somewhere around then. This time I'm not leaving until I get all of my work done so I don't have to fool myself into thinking that I'll be able to get work done on a laptop in NC. Luckily it looks like I'll be all out of NDAs and other product launches by then so if I can stay busy I should be able to take the last week or so of 2004 off.
With the X800 XL and 6200 Turbo Cache articles done and posted, I can get back to this Half Life 2 CPU guide that I've been working on for so long. Benchmarking is almost complete and I'm going to try my best to get this thing finished by early tomorrow morning. I'm off to visit ATI tomorrow which will eat up a good hunk of my day and I'd rather not put it off any longer, so I'll be doing my best today.
My Dothans finally came in for my Desktop Pentium M review, testing on them will begin as soon as I can stick a fork in Half Life 2.
I may chime back in before I leave for ATI tomorrow morning, but if not you'll definitely hear from me afterwards.
Take care.
I did a decent amount of gift shopping for Vinney in and around the city. The problem with living in Branford is that if you want anything other than what you can get at "the Walmart" you're pretty much out of luck, so taking advantage of trips out to more consumer-friendly areas is always on the to-do list.
I've been missing a good burger for quite some time now. The one thing we had plenty of in Raleigh were good burger joints (Cookout, Chargrill, Circus, etc...) and although none of them come close to the unhealthy goodness that is In-and-Out, they are better than nothing. There doesn't seem to be any good equivalents up here, although yesterday I found out that there are a plethora of Checkers in NY that I may be tempted to visit. We had Checkers back in Raleigh for a while, but there was some hepatitis B scare which I believe forced them to close down. They came back for a little bit but then went away again for similar reasons I believe. Checkers was a high school favorite of mine just for the fries, so I may have to find some excuse to make the always tiresome journey out to NY to sample them once more.
We'll be driving down to NC for the holidays, Vinney finishes up classes on the 21st so we'll be leaving somewhere around then. This time I'm not leaving until I get all of my work done so I don't have to fool myself into thinking that I'll be able to get work done on a laptop in NC. Luckily it looks like I'll be all out of NDAs and other product launches by then so if I can stay busy I should be able to take the last week or so of 2004 off.
With the X800 XL and 6200 Turbo Cache articles done and posted, I can get back to this Half Life 2 CPU guide that I've been working on for so long. Benchmarking is almost complete and I'm going to try my best to get this thing finished by early tomorrow morning. I'm off to visit ATI tomorrow which will eat up a good hunk of my day and I'd rather not put it off any longer, so I'll be doing my best today.
My Dothans finally came in for my Desktop Pentium M review, testing on them will begin as soon as I can stick a fork in Half Life 2.
I may chime back in before I leave for ATI tomorrow morning, but if not you'll definitely hear from me afterwards.
Take care.
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Ninja_Dean - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#22: I don't support child labor, but I do know that majority of the companies don't do that. IT industry is the one moving outsourcing these days and I highly doubt that children will be able to help make chips for Intel in sweaty labs. :-)The companies you are talking about, like Nike, used to do that until they got caught. And now they stopped doing that. Yes, 3rd world countries don't have strict laws because they want companies to invest in their economy regardless the consequences.
The whole idea of outsourcing is to attain cheap labor with higher education and skilled people.
#21: Not only do the pop and mom stores close down, but stores like Kroger and Publix also have problems when Wal-mart opens around their locations. Wal-mart doesn't force jobs to go overseas. IT industry is the one doing outsourcing and wal-mart has practically no connections with this industry, so I don't get how they are forcing jobs to go overseas. Yes, wal-mart has issues with women, which is sad and should not happen. And yes, their benefits to employees are just as bad, so I agree with you there.
Apparently you have a lot to learn about business. Making billions does not mean that it's a good business practice. Business practice also relies on company ethics and values. Think about it, their employees would be a whole lot happier and appreciative if they can take couple billion dollars and offer benefits to their employees. The whole goal of a business is to make as much profit as possible. The whole point is to cut as many extra costs to show higher profit margins, but almost all businesses take care of their employees. And wal-mart is an exception to this rule.
Take some business classes in high school and you will find out about good vs. bad business practices. Business practices are completely different than profits.
LeonT - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
=5 they own/owned/partners with Asda if u count thatpete - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
IT jobs are not the sort of jobs i was thinking about. It is common support that in giving jobs to third world countries is good because people in poverty will benefit. The kind of jobs i'm talking about are more like those fo the apparel industry where children are exploited for labor. Asian countries do not have anywhere near as tight labor laws as the U.S. do, which allows for cheap child labor.If it is your opinion that its ok to do this simply because we live in this market based economy where the only way to do better is by exploiting those below you, then i say F%$# capitalism.
Most of the countries that corporations have based their factories are south eastern asia. So india may be an exception. at this point i dont know anything about it or about the IT industry. (walmart doesnt make IT products...)
Its not like outsourcing helps the U.S. economy anyway. it just helps the fat get fatter.
The_Necromancer - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
OK, my point was that wal-mart forces jobs to go overseas b/c they have lots of clout (look it up at www.m-w.com) last year they made $250 billion dollars in sales, if you think that is "Very poor business practice" then you are mistaken, secondly women’s right in wal-mart are a joke, and there benefits are a joke as well. Thirdly, when wal-mart comes into a town they cause mom and pop stores, and 5 and dime stores to close down b/c they can accentually call the prices and if manufacturing companies won't go for that price then they stop selling that item, And finally I know that by me not shopping at wal-mart I makes no difference but at least I stand for something and not flow with the bandwagons.The_Necromancer
Ninja_Dean - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
#12: You sound like a person who just got fired from an IT job because of the lack of skills. Sorry buddy, but that's real life. It's a proven fact that lazy people with no skills never succeed in life and you are a fine example of that.#19: Actually that's not what you meant. Your point was completely different that what #18 stated.
#18: I agree with the first part of your post. Wal-mart is the worst workplace with poor management. No wonder you see a wal-mart on every street corner these days; they take money from benefits and open another wal-mart. Very poor business practice, in my opinion.
I disagree with your second point. Yes, it's true that these companies are going overseas for cheap labor, but they are not making their employees work underpaid. For example: a Computer Engineer in the U.S. would get hired for no less than $70,000 per year. However, in places like India and China, they are getting hired for $24,000. Due to a sudden boom in the IT industry, the competition is tough, but that's life. You have to work hard to achieve something in life. Now, $24K in India and China (when you convert to their salary) literally makes them rich. Imagine getting $24K in India and China right out of college when you are 23 or 24 years old you are suddenly at the top of the totem poll. Due to their currency rate, U.S. companies are benefiting. Here's what companies want: Intelligence + Efficiency = Less Salary and you have a dream formula for a company.
By the way, the conditions are just as good in India and China as they are in the United States. There are human activists in both of these countries and with blogs becoming the norm, I know multi-million companies will not take the risk to keep their employees under poor conditions.
The_Necromancer - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
exatly my point.pete - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
problem with walmart is not shipping jobs overseas. Problem is they have horrible wages for workers, horrible healthcare, and right now many women are suing walmart because of sexual harrassment. its not a safe place to work, it doesn't support any families, its only good for the idiot corporate bosses of our country.Problem with shipping jobs overseas is that in other countries there are no laws saying that people must earn a living wage or that workers even have rights. theres nothing keeping bosses from creating horrible working conditions so hogs in the U.S. who already have enough money can have some more. is it right to make people work harder than they would in the U.S. and get 1/10th the money? thats for you to decide.
Taybach - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
Anand,Enjoy your blog, but it's dirty. I'm speaking of the html (or xml, I'm not sure). There are open tags and open links that come through when it's read in bloglines or another rss reader.
Thanks in advance for fixing it.
Vivan - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
For some things, clothes etc., (and gifts for an SO ;) ) its much better to shop at B&M. Otherwise you could be in for a surprise when the fedex guy comes.Plus its an excuse to drive...
klah - Thursday, December 16, 2004 - link
"I did a decent amount of gift shopping for Vinney in and around the city. The problem with living in Branford is that if you want anything other than what you can get at "the Walmart" you're pretty much out of luck"You still shop at B&M Anand? I am surprised.